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10<br />
Old signs. New technology.<br />
This revolutionary art uses<br />
sight and sound to transport<br />
you through time and bring<br />
long dormant signs back to<br />
life. You literally have to see<br />
it to believe it.<br />
BOOK A VISIT<br />
NeonMuseum.org<br />
August 20<strong>19</strong><br />
Rocketman<br />
By: Renee Riendeau / Movie Revelations<br />
“<br />
I’ve had an incredible life, but life is about<br />
change.” Last year after a 300-date tour John<br />
announced he’s retiring from the road to spend<br />
more time with his family. “My priorities are my<br />
children, my husband, and my family.”<br />
Elton John became the world’s biggest rock star, then nearly<br />
lost everything to addiction. Those closest to him look back on his<br />
remarkable rise and rebirth as Rocketman hits the big screen.<br />
This movie was directed by veteran Dexter Fletcher and produced<br />
by David Furnish, John’s husband. David reports that John was an<br />
unhappy, lonely, only child fearful of his cold, distant father, a Royal Air<br />
Force flight lieutenant. Elton was a product of a stormy marriage that<br />
ended in divorce in <strong>19</strong>62.<br />
Painfully shy as<br />
Reggie Dwight, he<br />
came out of his<br />
shell as Elton John<br />
and embraced his<br />
sexuality. In <strong>19</strong>84 John<br />
shocked his friends by<br />
marrying German,<br />
sound engineer Renate<br />
Blauel.<br />
They divorced after four years. John then announced he was,<br />
“comfortable being gay.”<br />
Past the peak of his career, because of substance abuse, John<br />
was in rehab, sorting through the highs and lows of memory as he<br />
triumphantly pulls himself back from the brink. But the music served<br />
up in production numbers, that at times soar into exhilarating fantasy,<br />
never fails to catch us emotionally.<br />
To play John in Rocketman, Taron Egerton, 29, ate meals at John’s<br />
home and read his diaries. Egerton did his own singing and became<br />
Elton on a “molecular level” quotes John’s devoted husband Furnish.<br />
Taron “kills the show” as many critics proclaim.<br />
The musical Rocketman, is up there with Mamma Mia, and Bohemian<br />
Rhapsody, and is a fitting “pop monument” to superstar Elton John. The<br />
director does an excellent job of conveying how a young gay performer<br />
expresses his sexuality in both<br />
the bedroom and at the piano.<br />
I am giving this true life<br />
film “Rocketman” five boxes<br />
5<br />
of buttered popcorn. Taron<br />
Egerton blasts off as the<br />
legendary Elton John!<br />
And I hope to see YOU at the<br />
movies.<br />
Renee Riendeau is the movie critic for “Renee’s Revelations”<br />
on Anthem Alive SCA-TV. As a dog sitter she operates “ Renee’s<br />
Roommates” out of her home and can be reached at<br />
rriendeau@aol.com.
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